Tuesday AM - Train from Fairbanks to Denali

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8am-Noon on the train fro mFairbanks to Denali

Our trip has been going very smoothly except for a brief moment this morning when I thought I'd lost my gloves. I had worked out that I would wear one pair of socks on my feet and one pair on my hands, but before I had cut the thumb holes I found my gloves.
I'm really appreciating not being on an organized tour. At 7am Wendell and I checked into the train depot in Fairbanks and there were no other passengers. At 7:15am, just as we finished checking in and sat down at a bench, the tour buses arrived and began disgorging hundreds of people.
The train has the Alaska Railroad cars, one first class and the rest `Adventure class` (second class). The train also pulls all the Princess and H.A.L. private cars. I'm sure all the private cars are nice and so is the first class, but the `Adventure class` cars are really nice.
Unlike when I am on an airplane I felt no desire to upgrade to first class. Wendell and I hung out most if the time in the dining car chatting with the staff, getting the intel on what's good to see, etc.


Hobbit eating reindeer sausage for breakfast

I teased her, "You're eating Rudolph!"

We almost went rafting on it with a commercial group, but never found one willing to leave after the train dropped us off. As it turns out, the water levels were low and it looked like more of a float than a white water raft so though it would have been pretty, it would also have been boring. See what I mean about the trip going very well for us?


At the appointed time we went to the dome car and sat upstairs looking at the best view of the trip. We were going beside the Nenana River.
Hobbit snapped a photo of Wendell and the two women hikers from Denver that we were to meet two days later in Denali.


Rafters in the Nenana River

Wendell snapped this photo from the observation car looking down into the river canyon. If you look into the upper left corner of the photo you can see some of the cars in our train.

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